


The Whole World Is Shaking Now

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-22
Updated: 2003-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1629224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for kel.</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Whole World Is Shaking Now

**Author's Note:**

> Written for kel.

 

 

The first time they kissed, he said "You're going to marry me." 

She'd laughed and called him crazy, but that was the kind of man he was. Her father would have called him cocky and uncultured but underneath that he was fiercely loyal and ruthlessly principled when he came to the difference between right and wrong, dark and light, them and Voldemort. 

That was what Lily loved about him. 

In the end they'd had to get married, the tiny life inside her demanding it, not to mention her parents. James had sworn that he'd remembered the contraception charms, but it was both their faults for sneaking out to the Shrieking Shack, which lacked the charms of the school. 

She's lost the baby a few weeks after they'd gotten married; no number of spells could stop the miscarriage once it had started. It was her first experience with circumstance winning out over magic. If only she'd had her wand on her when she'd tripped and fallen down the rickety stairs. 

The depression eventually passed, taking several months of her too-new and fragile marriage with it. She found out she was pregnant with Harry the same day the Daily Prophet ran a headline proclaiming the Ministry not strong enough to win the war. James found her sobbing on the kitchen floor, clutching the piece of paper from St. Mungo's with the newspaper spilled out beside her. 

Sirius arrived the next day, early in the morning, and tried to hide the Prophet once it had been delivered. "You don't want to see it, Lily," he said. 

"When did I become one of those women you have to keep things from?" she'd replied, and grabbed it from him. 

MINISTRY ANNOUNCES SUPPORT, it screamed in huge letters that flashed. She'd slumped into a chair and looked up at Sirius. "What kind of world will we have created by the time this baby is born?" she whispered. "There's ten Death Eaters for every one of us, Sirius; they're going to exterminate us." 

He knelt down in front of her, his hands warm on her knees. "You and James are going to go into hiding," he said gently. 

"You know I don't want that." She'd told James a thousand times; hiding was useless against Voldemort once he'd marked someone for death. 

"There's ten of them for every one of us, you said it yourself. Why not protect every chance we get to increase our numbers? For Merlin's sake, Lily, I know you don't want to see us wiped out." 

"It's going to happen anyway," she said in a choked voice. 

Sirius shook his head. "Listen. There's been a prophecy." 

So that was why he was here. "I don't believe in that stuff." 

"You have to." 

"Sirius -" 

"You have to, Lil. Believe it, save your baby's life." 

She couldn't argue with that, nor with James' haunted eyes that night. "I know it's not what you want," he whispered into her hair. "I don't want to go, either." 

"But we're going anyway," she replied with a sigh, kissing his neck. "I love you." 

"I love you, too." He set his glasses on the counter and rubbed his eyes. 

"It's nice here," she murmured. "It was safe, for awhile." 

"Yeah." James wrapped his arms around her again. 

"I don't want to leave here, James, unless we absolutely have to." 

He looked into her eyes, and she knew. And in the end she went, heavy with dread and heavy with life, to the tiny house in Godric's Hollow where there was nothing to do but wait. 

 


End file.
